Neptune ( ) is the god of freshwater and the sea in the Roman religion.J. Toutain, Les cultes païens de l'Empire romain, vol. I (1905:378) securely identified Italic Neptune as a saltwater sources as well as the sea. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the Greek-inspired tradition, he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto, with whom he presides over the realms of heaven, the earthly world (including the underworld), and the seas.About the relationship of the lord of our earthly world with water(s) Bloch, p. 342-346, gives the following explanations: Poseidon is originally conceived as a chthonic god, lord and husband of the Earth (for the etymolog gearoid γαιήοχος, he who possesses the Earth, εννοσίδας he who makes the Earth quake) with an equine form. He mates with Demeter under this form in the Arcadian myth from Thelpusa, they beget the racing horse Areion and the unnamed daughter of those mysteries (story in Pausanias VIII 25, 3). Poseidon hippios (horse) is the god of Earth and as springs come from beneath the earth, this is also a metaphora (or better a figure) of the origin of life on Earth; the horse is universally considered as having a psychopompous character and Poseidon is known as tamer of horses (damaios) and father of Pegasus who with its hoof can open up a spring. Poseidon is the god worshipped in the main temple of the Isle of Atlantis in the myth narrated by Plato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias; there was also a hippodrome nearby. The island was swallowed up by an earthquake caused by Poseidon himself. This factor would connect the power over earth and that over waters. The Greek had a memory of the explosion of the Island of Santorini and of the seaquake it provoked as well as other consequences affecting climate. Salacia is his wife.
Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those in North Africa, were influenced by Hellenistic conventions.Alain Cadotte, "Neptune Africain", Phoenix 56. 3/4 (Autumn/Winter 2002:330-347) detected syncretic traces of a Libyan/Punic agrarian god of fresh water sources, with the epithet Frugifer, "fruit-bearer"; Cadotte enumerated (p.332) some north African Roman mosaics of the fully characteristic Triumph of Neptune, whether riding in his chariot or mounted directly on albino dolphins. He was likely associated with freshwater springs before the sea;Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, 381, Paris, 1966. his festival, Neptunalia, took place on July 23, during the peak of summer when water was scarcest. Like Poseidon, he was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, Neptunus equestris, who was also a patron of horse-racing.Compare Epona.
Worship
The theology of Neptune is limited by his close identification with the Greek god Poseidon, one of many members of the Greek pantheon whose theology was later tied to a Roman deity. The lectisternium of 399 BC indicated that the Greek figures of Poseidon, Artemis, and Heracles had been introduced and worshipped in Rome as Neptune, Diana, and Hercules. It has been speculated that Neptune has been conflated with a Proto-Indo-European freshwater deity; since the Indo-Europeans lived inland and had little direct knowledge of the sea, the Romans may have reused the theology of a previous freshwater god in their worship of Neptune. Servius explicitly names Neptune as the god of rivers, springs, and waters; he may parallel the Irish god Nechtan, master of rivers and wells. This is in contrast to Poseidon, who was primarily a god of the sea.
Neptune has been associated with a number of other Roman deities. By the first century BC, he had supplanted Portunus as the god of naval victories; Sextus Pompeius called himself the "son of Neptune". For a time, Neptune was paired in his dominion of the sea with Salacia, the goddess of saltwater. Neptune was considered the legendary progenitor god of the Falisci (who called themselves Neptunia proles), joining Mars, Janus, Saturn, and Jupiter as the deific father of a Latin tribe.
Neptunalia Neptunalia, the Roman festival of Neptune, was held at the height of summer (typically on July 23). The date of the festival and the construction of tree-branch shelters suggest that Neptune was a god of water sources in times of drought and heat."C'est-à-dire au plus fort de l'été, au moment de la grande sécheresse, et qu'on y construisaient des huttes de feuillage en guise d'abris contre le soleil" (Cadotte 2002:342, noting Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatu [ed. Lindsay 1913] 519.1) The most ancient Roman calendar set the feriae of Neptunus on July 23, between the Lucaria festival of the grove and the Furrinalia festival of July 25. All three festivals were connected to water during the period of summer heat (canicula) and drought, when freshwater sources were lowest.G. Dumézil Fêtes romaines d' été et d' automne. Suivi de Dix questions romaines Paris 1975 1. "Les eaux et les bois" p. 25-31.
It has been speculated that the three festivals fall in a logical order. The Lucaria was devoted to clearing overgrown bushes and uprooting and burning excess vegetation. Neptunalia followed, devoted to conservation and the draining of superficial waters. These culminated in the Furrinalia, sacred to Furrina (the goddess of springs and wells).
Neptunalia was spent under branch huts in a woods between the Tiber and the Via Salaria, with participants drinking spring water and wine to escape the heat.CIL, vol. 1, pt 2:323; Varro, De lingua Latina vi.19. It was a time of merrymaking, when men and women could mix without the usual Roman societal constraints.Sarolta A. Takacs Vestal virgins, sibyls and matronae: women in Roman religion 2008, University of Texas Press, p. 53 f., citing Horace Carmina III 28. There is an added context of agricultural fertility in the festival, since Neptune received the sacrifice of a bull.Sarolta A. Takacs 2008; citing Macrobius Saturnalia III 10, 4.
Temples Neptune had only one temple in Rome, the Temple of Neptune. It stood near the Circus Flaminius, the Roman racetrack in the southern part of the Campus Martius, and dates back to at least 206 BC.Cassius Dio 17 fragment 57. 60 as cited by L. Richardson jr. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 1992 p. 267. The temple was restored out by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus , an event depicted on a coin struck by the consul. Within the temple was a sculpture of a marine group by Scopas Minor.On the issue of this group by Scopas cf. F. Coarelli "L'ora di Domizio Enobarbo e la cultura artistica in Roma nel II sec. a. C." in Dialoghi di Arrcheologia II 3 1968 p. 302-368. The Basilica Neptuni was later built on the Campus Martius, and was dedicated by Agrippa in honor of the naval victory of Actium. This basilica supplanted the older temple, which had replaced an ancient altar.Dumézil 1977 p. 340, who cites Livy Ab Urbe Condita Libri XXVIII 11, 4. Bloch 1981 p. 347 n. 19.
Sacrifices Neptune is one of only four Roman gods to whom it was considered appropriate to sacrifice a bull. The other three were Apollo, Mars, and Jupiter, although Vulcan (known in Greek mythology as Hephaestus) has also been depicted with the offering of a red bull and a red-bull calf.Macrobius Saturnalia III 10,4 If an incorrect offering was presented, either inadvertently or due to necessity, additional propitiation was required to avoid divine retribution. This type of offering implied a stricter connection between the deity and the world.G. Dumezil "Quaestiunculae indo-italicae: 11. Iovi tauro verre ariete immolari non licet" Revue d' Etudes Latins 39 1961 p. 241-250.
Paredrae Paredrae are entities who accompany a god, representing the fundamental aspects (or powers) of that god. With Hellenic influence, these paredrae came to be considered separate deities and consorts of their associated god.William Warde Fowler The Religious experience of the Roman People London, 1912, p. 346f. Earlier folk belief might have also identified paredrae as consorts of their god.Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae XIII 24, 1-18.
Salacia and Venilia have been discussed by ancient and modern scholars. Varro connects Salacia to salum (sea), and Venilia to ventus (wind).Varro Lingua Latina V 72. Festus attributed to Salacia the motion of the sea.Festus p. L s.v. Venilia brought waves to the shore, and Salacia caused their retreat out to sea.Varro apud Augustine De Civitate Dei VII 22. They were examined by the Christian philosopher St. Augustine, who devoted a chapter of De Civitate Dei to ridiculing inconsistencies in the theological definition of the entities; since Salacia personified the deep sea, Augustine wondered how she could also be the retreating waves (since waves are a surface phenomenon). He wrote elsewhere that Venilia would be the "hope that comes", an aspect (or power) of Jupiter understood as anima mundi.Augustine above II 11.
Servius, in his commentary on the Aeneid, wrote about Salacia and Venilia in V 724: "(Venus) dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie meretricum dea appellata est a veteribus"; "(Venus) is also called Salacia, who was particularly named goddess of prostitutes by the ancient". Elsewhere, he wrote that Salacia and Venilia are the same entity.William Warde Fowler The Religious Experience of the Roman People London, 1912, Appendix II.
Among modern scholars, Dumézil and his followers Bloch and Schilling centre their interpretation of Neptune on the direct, concrete, limited value and functions of water. Salacia would represent the forceful, violent aspect of gushing and overflowing water and Venilia the tranquil, gentle aspect of still (or slowly-flowing) water. According to Dumézil,Dumézil accepts and re-proposes the interpretations of Wissowa and von Domaszewski. Neptune's two paredrae (Salacia and Venilia) represent the overpowering and tranquil aspects of water, natural and domesticated: Salacia the gushing, overbearing waters, and Venilia the still (or quietly-flowing) waters.Dumezil above p.31
Preller, Fowler, Petersmann and Takács attribute to the theology of Neptune broader significance as a god of universal worldly fertility, particularly relevant to agriculture and human reproduction. They interpret Salacia as personifying lust, and Venilia as related to venia: ingratiating attraction, connected with love and the desire for reproduction. Ludwig Preller cited a significant aspect of Venilia; she was recorded in the indigitamenta as a deity of longing or desire. According to Preller, this would explain a theonym similar to that of Venus.Ludwig Preller Römische Mythologie Berlin, 1858 part II, p.121-2; Servius Ad Aeneidem VIII 9. Other data seem to agree; Salacia would parallel Thetis as the mother of Achilles, and Venilia would be the mother of Turnus and Iuturna by Daunus (king of the Rutulians). According to another source, Venilia would be the partner of Janus, with whom she mothered the nymph Canens (loved by Picus).Ovid Metamorphoses XIV 334. These mythical data underline the reproductive function envisaged in the figures of Neptune's paredrae, particularly that of Venilia, in childbirth and motherhood. A legendary king Venulus was remembered at Tibur and Lavinium.Ludwig Preller above, citing Servius; C. J. Mackie "Turnus and his ancestors" in The Classical Quarterly (New Series) 1991, 41, pp. 261-265.
Neptunus equestris